Etape de Tour - shame on the 'organisers'

[swee'pea99]

Absolutely fantastic day, even if I did get swept up by the broom wagon 8 miles from the end, but...

• Why was there no shuttle on the day, for the doubtless thousands of riders who needed to get from the end back to the start?
• Why did the shuttle the day before stop running at 5pm, hours before the registrations closed?
• Why were people arriving at the feedstations and asking for electrolytic powders (as promised) greeted with a shrug of the shoulders and 'C'est finis!'?
• Why did the sweeper coaches take two hours to cover that last 8 miles, rather than going on to the village and releasing the hundreds of exhausted riders? Two hours, trapped in a coach, with no water, no food, no toilet facilities, no nothing. And for no reason whatsoever. And above all...
• Why when my friend arrived in a seriously perilous state were there no medical personnel on hand? None. Apparently they'd gone home because 'the race is over', despite the fact that hundreds if not thousands of riders hadn't yet arrived. He was rescued by a woman working in the food tent, who gave him her jumper (there being no blankets anywhere) and a young English doctor who'd been competing, who managed to track down some coverings, donated his hoody and kept massaged him until the ambulance arrived. (He had hypothermia, a temperature so low the doctor flinched when he saw it, a pulse below 40, and generally was in a state such that the doctor later told me 'another half hour and he could have been in really serious trouble', leaving no doubt just what 'trouble' he had in mind.)

And so on, and so on, and so on. I mean, I live in a nation accustomed to thinking of itself as a bit slack when it comes to organisation, but this went beyond inefficiency. It smacked of an utter disregard for the life and safety of people.

I hate to be negative, because it was a great event, and I'd like to go on about that, but I'm really angry about the way this thing was run. It was a disgrace.

 

[PpPete]

sounds "not good" - and it's not cheap I heard...

 

[endoman]

V sorry to hear about your friend, medical care should be accessible until everyone is back safely.
I'm flying out for Acte 2 tomorrow, but I have read on the Etape site there is no shuttle back on the day of the ride and it states the end time of the day's before shuttles. Hence me using a tour operator to shuttle me round.

There is a lot of info on the site, I am planning for them to possibly run out of drink supplements etc and am taking enough to get me round. If they have some left then all the better for me! There does seem to be a lot of stuff going on around the event in the start and finish towns. It will be my first European Sportive, I have been on sportives in UK this year where the food supplies were less than ideal as well, rations, and 30 minute queues,

 

[thom]

That sounds shocking.

 

[beastie]

All sportives should be run by the same people who do the Etape Caledonia.

 

[montage]

This has made me think twice about entering next year

 

[dellzeqq]

a friend did it in 2008 and the drinks ran out well before he arrived at the feed stations

 

[TheDoctor]

And yet it's not rocket science. It shouldn't be hard to organise.
The french ride I did in May provided energy products as you signed in, had a well-stocked feed stop part way round, and ample food (and beer ) at the end. They didn't even know how many were coming, as there was no pre-registration required.
It cost me 3 euro...

 

[yello]

It cost me 3 euro...

Wow! Which ride was that? A local club one? Because that's incredibly good value.

My local sportive (part of the UFOLEP national trophy event) was €28 this year and whilst that's timers and a couple of feed stops, there's nothing sophisticated about it.

I would have expected better from the Etape du tour though. That's frankly shocking.

 

[TheDoctor]

It was this one.
Only just over the channel too!!

 

[bof]

I did the Paris-Roubaix Sportive this year and for 20 Euro or so all the grub you wanted at the intermediate stops +beer and sandwich at the end, and your Audax-style card signed really fast. My only complaint was we could have got an extra 1/2 hour sleep before the shuttle to the start from Roubaix as you had to get up at 1am :-() to meet the schedule they gave and it could have been later based on when the coaches actually set off.

Oh yes - and all those cr*p roads with cobbles they send you down.

Difference, I suspect. P-R is run by the Roubaix cycling club, not a "professional" organisation.

 

[endoman]

Superb organisation at Acte 2 yesterday, loads of water, food, powders etc. Couldn't fault anything except the weather. I'll do a report in a bit! Nice to have a few beers with cyclingsheep of this parish last night as well